The Kippens | Tyrus

A Past

Cyrus' POV

6 Years Ago

Jacob has many good qualities that I like. He's a palaeontology major, so he shares my love of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. My friends like him, especially Jonah and Walker, because Jacob knows how to play the guitar, and they like to bond over that. But Jacob doesn't make me come to the park with him so that he can play basketball, or spend evenings fluttering his fingers over piano keys, singing songs while I listen from the couch, letting myself fall asleep to the music. 

If you'd ask me if I cared that he didn't do those things, I'd say no. But he knows me past the words I say, and that is apparently obvious in this situation now, him standing facing me in the middle of the courtyard, breaking up with me. 

"Cyrus," Jacob says, "I know you're still hung up on your ex."

"But I'm not—"

"Cyrus, stop," he cuts me off. 

I do like him. At least I thought I did up until this moment. But thinking about it, I don't think TJ's ever really left the back of my mind. His memory has always been there, acting as a basis for comparison. Anything Jacob does, I think about how different or similar it is to TJ. But I do like Jacob—just not enough. 

"Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that you don't miss TJ," Jacob questions. 

I stay silent. If I say no, I'd be confirming his belief that I never felt for him what he felt for me. But if I say yes, I'll be lying. 

After a few seconds of waiting for a response that isn't coming, Jacob shakes his head and takes a step back. 

"Do the next boy a favour," he says. "Figure your shit out before you go and play with someone else's heart."

He turns around and marches off, and I'm left standing alone outside. I hear the door swing open as he enters the school, but my eyes are on nothing in particular, allowing my brain to focus on my thoughts. Will I ever get over TJ or will he always just be there in my memories, affecting everything and do and everyone I talk to? I thought I'd moved on. Now I just feel guilty for making Jacob think I could care about him the way I should've—the way I cared about TJ. 

I hear thunder crackle above me. I think it's going to start raining soon. 

Present Day

TJ's POV

Captain stops the truck on the side of the road near a parked Prius where the call came from. Now no longer the new guy, I'm a fully-functioning part of this team. Copper had told me that when she was new here, it took a few days for the others to warm up to her, and the same held true for me. I step out of the truck and head over to where she and the group are huddled around a blonde woman, shivering in a tank top in this 50-degree-fahrenheit weather. I assume she must be the woman who called to let us know about this car roll-over on a street that just kisses the outskirts of town. 

"It's over there," she says, pointing into the trees where a shiny surface peeks out from the shrubbery. "I didn't want to move him, because he's bleeding a lot."

"Okay, thank you, ma'am," Flax tells her, then he looks to us and starts spouting orders.

Jesse and I descend into the ditch on the edge of the road and are the first to reach the vehicle. The burgundy minivan is sitting right side up, but it's apparent that it wasn't always that way by the crushed roof and doors. Inside the vehicle, a man sits upright. If you ignore the numerous cuts and gashes on his head and limbs, he almost looks completely normal, aside from the thin tree branch impaled through the centre of his chest. I check to see if he still has a pulse. It's weak, but it's there.